


Innistrad Divided

by Cryptovex



Category: Magic: The Gathering (Card Game)
Genre: Design Fanfic (if you will), Gen, Putting my polisci degree to good use, Worldbuilding, speculative future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:34:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23462521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cryptovex/pseuds/Cryptovex
Summary: After Avacyn and Emrakul have vanished, Innistrad has a lot of unanswered questions and new factional splits.
Kudos: 8





	Innistrad Divided

It has been nearly two years since Avacyn died and Emrakul was sealed in the moon. New theories appear every day, quickly turning into either doctrine or heresy. Many have turned away from the Church entirely, seeking truth wherever they can find it. No single faction is strong enough to win outright, and alliances form and dissolve every day.

* * *

**The Children of Markov** _(White/Black)_

The truth of Avacyn's existence is now public - she was not humanity's savior but a game warden, created by Sorin Markov to ensure a balanced food supply for his kind. Many people reject this as heresy or lunacy, but the ones who embrace it have formed a new religion, the Children of Markov. Its members are primarily humans and vampires, with a growing army of pious geists. Its human members are often dismissed as useful idiots for their bloodsucking clergy, but they insist that their collars and chains represent the vital links and obligations that sustain all of Innistrad.

The Children of Markov's mechanical identity focuses on sacrificing for the greater good, and symmetrical effects (whether positive or negative.) It is led by an anonymous masked apostate of the Lunarch Council.

 **The Galvanic Cabal** _(Blue/Red)_

The Cabal is a society of luminaries, crackpots, and necro-alchemists united by their disdain for reverent incuriosity. Cowering before angels and demons will only bind Innistrad to its pitiful, superstitious past. Its members study the nature of Eldrazi, werewolves, vampirism, and undeath in all its forms. It meets in a network of labs and parlors across Nephalia, where contraband scientific texts are smuggled in every day. Many of them are unverifiable nonsense, but the gems are thoroughly tested, replicated, and annotated.

The Galvanic Cabal's mechanical identity focuses on drawing multiple cards and casting multiple spells, creating Clue tokens, and jolting the dead to life. It is led by a necro-alchemical automaton containing the fused souls of Ludevic and Geralf Cecani.

 **The Pact of the Crossroads** _(Black/Green)_

Ancient forces stir in the wilderness, far older than any formal Church. Demons, elementals, and beings unknown to any cleric or scientist offer immense power to anyone who knows how to ask. Many werewolves have sworn themselves to the Pact's ranks, already familiar with a fraction of the wild's secrets. The Pact has no formal meeting places, but its acolytes will find each other whenever the time is auspicious.

The Pact's mechanical identity focuses on resource conversion, power at a cost, and knowing when to take a calculated loss. It has no single leader, but its followers often invoke and swear by a being named 'The Benefactor,' whom none of them have ever met.

 **The Heron Corps** _(Red/White)_

To the Heron Corps, the only problem with Avacyn's incendiary purge was that it was cut short. They are the most militant and organized faction, claiming direct continuity with the _true_ Church of Avacyn. A drumbeat of slogans and marches drowns out any doubts. But their dogma is punishingly rigid - they spend just as much time interrogating their own members as they do external heretics. They draw heavily from bewildered youth with unresolved trauma, but with frequent turnover. The leadership secretly debates how to pivot to a sustainable structure without losing their fundamental drive, and the power struggles are often fatal.

The Heron Corps' mechanical identity focuses on going all-in, scorched-earth strategies, and never backing down. It is led by a battalion of angels who claim a unique bond with the spirit of Avacyn.

 **The Writhing Union** _(Green/Blue)_

Trace amounts of Emrakul's power still leak from the moon. Many residents try to ignore it and suppress their memories of the incursion, but the Writhing Union longs to restore her. They build cryptolith shrines where her influence is strongest, crossbreed the most mutated plants and livestock, and meticulously study any anomalies of the moon. They also share tales of other extraplanar visitors, and intently study how they might effortlessly step between worlds.

The Writhing Union's mechanical identity focuses on double-faced cards, and many other types of transformations. It is led by Josefina Rutstein, a farmer who has spent years obsessively marking her fields with sigils she claims not to even recognize.

**Author's Note:**

> I thought about 'An Innistrad set focused on religious/social schisms' way before Shadows Over Innistrad was even announced, and I think the second block gives it a lot more neat creative/mechanical fuel!
> 
> I also like enemy-color factions as a dissonant break from Innistrad's usual ally-colored tribes. (This would still have some familiar tribal elements, but subsumed to the focus on ideological schisms.) It could even have a cycle of 'schism' enchantments, like Fate Reforged's 'sieges,' with a choice between the two factions that share that color.


End file.
